Monday, November 7, 2016

I’ve Got A Feeling

Ron Howard’s documentary The Beatles - Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years is being screened each night at The Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago through Thursday, November 10, and it’s also being shown at The Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove. Packed with rare, vintage footage, it follows John, Paul, George, and Ringo through their early days of performing. The concerts, recording sessions, press conferences, backstage maneuvering, and hotel room banter vividly recapture what it must have felt like to be on one of the greatest thrill rides in recent history.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr offer touching and informative commentary in recently filmed bits, while older clips of John Lennon and George Harrison provide their reflections on Beatlemania. Reporter Larry Kane, who reported on The Beatles while traveling on tour with them, adds a unique perspective, and Howard also taps Whoopi Goldberg, Elvis Costello, and others to share their memories. Eight Days A Week touches on the John F. Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War, while showing how The Beatles were affected by society, as well as how they changed it.

Gradually, The Beatles grew less astonished by their worldwide popularity, and felt more imprisoned within it. By they time they performed at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in 1966, all four of them wanted to skip the screaming audiences and concentrate on exploring new musical territory in the studio. At the Gene Siskel Film Center, Eight Days A Week is also being shown with the 30-minute documentary The Beatles Live At Shea Stadium. Seeing Howard’s documentary helps bring a deeper understanding of The Beatles’s 1965 show in New York. While their songs burst with guitar-driven energy and harmony vocals on this vividly restored footage, it’s now easier to connect to the very human emotions behind the superstars personas.

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About This Blog

Broken Hearted Toy is an eclectic celebration of creativity, with over 2,000 posts since 2009.

It's based in Chicago but covers power pop, garage, cutting-edge, and 1960s rock from around the globe; along with occasional bits on art; literature; and theatre.

Top of the hill is a nice place to be at. - - - "Elevated Observations" by The Hollies.

Check out some of my previoius creative endeavors.

Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff was a weekly Internet show created by and starring Jeff Kelley. It mostly consisted of comedy bits and obscure 1960s garage rock set to vintage TV and film clips but also spotlighted entertainment events around Illinois.

My wife Pam and I created a handful of series (each episode was about two minutes long) that were shown on Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff. They included Manchester Gallery (see description below); Old Days, which I hosted in the persona of a cranky old man named Fritz Willoughby; Roving Reporter, where I played the clueless title character; What's With Terry?, a performance arts program; and Hanging With The Hollies, a takeoff on Breakfast With The Beatles.

I've also worked with Kelley and Willy Deal on comedy clips, and with Kelley and David Metzger on films for the annual Nightmare on Chicago Street Halloween festival in Elgin.

I'm particularly proud of this 21-episode comedy series Pam and I created for Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff. Each installment was a few minutes long, and featured me portraying Terrence, the curator of a pop culture museum.

I was a staff writer for this Chicago-based magazine from 1987 to 2015. The Illinois Entertainer has been covering rock music for over 40 years, and can be found in stores and entertainment venues, as well as in an online edition.

Chicago Art Machine was a web-based publishing company run by Editor-in-Chief, Kathryn Born, and Managing Editor, Robin Dluzen, that included Chicago Art Magazine, Chicago DIY Film,Chicago Performance And Trailers, and TINC. Most of my submissions appeared in Chicago DIY Film and Chicago Performance And Trailers, although I contributed to all the online Chicago Art Machine publications.

I was a writer and performer with this local comedy group from 1989 to 2009. Famous In The Future continues to perform in the Chicago area, and appeared at every one of the Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sinstheatre festivals that were held at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre. Since the closing of the Mary-Arrchie Theatre a few years ago, Famous In The Future has carried on the tradition by presenting Yippie Fest each year in August.

I'm an active member of SCBWI, (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and have written two Middle Grade fantasy novels. I've just finished a YA/paranormal novel, and also wrote a suspense/satiric novel that takes place amidst Chicago's alternative music scene in the mid-1980s.

Broken Hearted Toy

The blog title comes from the line, "I'm the brokenhearted toy you play with" in the song "I Can't Let Go" by The Hollies. One of the great original British Invasion bands, The Hollies continue to have an immense influence on power pop bands to this day, and have finally been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here is a video of "I Can't Let Go" being performed in 1966.